La novela “An isle of Eden, a Story of Porto Rico“, de la misionera bautista Janie Duggan, es de lo más hermoso que he leído en materia de literatura relacionada con Puerto Rico escrita por estadounidenses. Se publicó en 1912, y contiene escenas minuciosamente descritas de la vida doméstica, descripciones de calles y campos, del trajín del comercio itinerante, de los salones aristocráticos y los barrios pobres de la ciudad de Ponce, además de situaciones de intensidad y fuerza lírica. Abundan los personajes femeninos fuertes. Comparto un párrafo sobre una lavandera convertida al cristianismo que visita a la protagonista. La mujer se queja de que el agua del charco donde lavaba se ha desviado para irrigar los cañaverales. No falta un comentario sobre la paciencia de los pobres:
“Do you know where we have to go for our washing now, Sarita?” Sarah merely shook her head, not to arrest the tide of Concha’s picturesque phrasing, her senses all alive, however, at the mention of Doña Monserrate’s name.”
“Since they are drawing off all the water the drought has left in the river for irrigating the cane lands there is not a trickle left for our washing-stones. So we must go to Portugués, two miles from here, for water enough for our clothes.” There was no complaint in Concha’s voice, for the poor and powerless learn to accept difficulties as a part of their daily fare and, in their normal state, are the most patient burden-bearers of the world. And, of course, in this instance no one could question the fact that the cane needed the scanty river more than washerwomen. For cane means labor, and labor means men’s wages, and wages mean even more than the sugar the cane will yield, and soap for washing clothes.”
El libro contiene ilustraciones fotográficas, entre ellas la del cañaveral.
Marta Aponte Alsina